SET SAIL
Only an hour out of port, the Dunne family's summer getaway to paradise is already turning into the trip from hell. Carrie, the eldest, has thrown herself off the side of the boat in a bid for attention. Sixteen-year-old Mark is getting high belowdecks. And Ernie, their ten-year-old brother, is nearly catatonic. It's shaping up to be the worst vacation ever.

SOAK UP THE SUN
Katherine Dunne had hoped this trip would bring back the togetherness they'd lost when her husband died four years earlier. Maybe if her new husband, a high-powered Manhattan attorney, had been able to postpone his trial and join them it would all have been okay....

PREPARE TO DIE
Suddenly, a disaster hits–and it's perfect. Faced with real danger, the Dunnes rediscover the meaning of family and pull together in a way they haven't in a long time. But this catastrophe is just a tiny taste of the danger that lurks ahead: someone wants to make sure that the Dunne family never makes it out of paradise alive.

With whiplash plot twists, speedboat pacing, and an eye for the evil that can lie behind even the most gorgeous setting, James Patterson delivers Sail–the wettest, most explosive ocean adventure since Jaws.

AFTER A LIGHT DRIZZLE that persisted all through Friday
morning, a noontime fog settled over the Goat Island Marina
in exclusive and very tony Newport, Rhode Island.

Fog.

How fitting, thought Jake Dunne, stretching his lean sixfoot-
one frame as he stood on the teakwood deck of his late
brother's boat. Maybe that was because he still wasn't clear
about this trip–what to expect, how it would play out.
Would he live to regret it?

All he knew was how his former sister-in-law, Katherine,
sounded on the phone when she called him a few weeks
back. Desperate. Compelling. The way she talked about
wanting–no, needing–to take this trip with the kids, you'd
think it was her last hope in the world.

So how could he say no to her when she asked if he would
be their captain? He couldn't, of course. He always said yes to
Katherine.

Jake was about to resume his final inspection of the boat,
admiring all the new lines and canvas, when he heard a
familiar voice call out to him.

"How ya doin' there, J.D.? Good to see you." Steve turned
to see Darcy Hammerman, the launch skipper for the marina.
Darcy was standing directly below him on the dock. She was
dressed in the same blue polo shirt with the Goat Island logo
that everyone on the staff was required to wear. Only Darcy's
shirt was a lot more faded, a subtle sign of her seniority. And
why not? She and her brother Robert owned the place.

"Not too much," Darcy answered, flashing an easy grin.
She was in her late thirties, slender, attractive, and always
very tan. "Just another day of shuttling rich people to boats
that cost more than my house."

Jake chuckled, watching as Darcy turned her attention to
The Family Dunne.

"So how's she looking to you?" Darcy asked. "Is she ready
to set sail?"

"She's a little rusty, maybe, but definitely seaworthy," said
Jake, who would know as well as anybody.

Growing up in Newport as the youngest in a family of
devout sailors, Jake found boating a lot like breathing–it just
came naturally. In fact, of all the Dunnes, Jake had become the
most accomplished sailor. Twice he won the Cruising Division
of the prestigious–and extremely arduous–Newport
Bermuda sailing race.

Still, Darcy didn't look entirely convinced by his breezy
appraisal. As she continued to eye the boat, she actually
seemed a little concerned.

"What is it?" asked Jake. "You see something I didn't?
Something come up in your overhaul?"

"Nothing–nothing at all."

"How long have I known you–about ten years? It's obviously
something. So tell me."

Jake nodded and didn't press her on it. He didn't need to.
He knew exactly what Darcy was talking about. Among sailors
worth spit, the superstition was widely known. What's
more, Jake believed in it. Sort of, anyway. It had been weighing
on his mind as well. Like a two-ton anchor. A boat that
loses its captain at sea is forever a ghost ship.

Stuart had died while scuba diving off The Family Dunne.
His tank had malfunctioned, cutting off his air. Stuart went
down and never came up–that is, until his body was recovered.
So to Jake, superstition or not, his older brother's boat
was a haunting reminder of a tragedy he'd just as soon forget.
If only he could. Had it been up to him, he would've sold the
damn thing before the dirt even settled on Stuart's grave.

But Katherine absolutely insisted on keeping it, presumably
for sentimental reasons. Christ! A wedding band or a
watch–those made for good keepsakes. Not a sixty-twofoot
luxury Morris yacht!

Worse, the boat had done nothing but sit in some warehouse
for the past four years. Katherine and the kids hadn't
sailed it once. She hadn't even laid eyes on it.

Dylan Baker is an actor and director who has been nominated for a Tony Award, a Drama Desk Award, and an Obie. Some of his feature film credits include Happiness, Kinsey, Road to Perdition, Along Came a Spider, and Random Hearts. On television he has appeared in From the Earth to the Moon, Murder One, and The Laramie Project, among many others. Baker resides in New York.

Jennifer Van Dyck has appeared on Broadway in Hedda Gabler and Dancing at Lughnasa. Her film and television credits include Michael Clayton, Across the Universe, Bullets Over Broadway, Law & Order, Ed, and Spin City.